Re: 12v power

I happened to think about that today. It hit me that hp numbers are totally different. I'm getting 18 and he says he's getting 20. Sometimes I get 20, but my last fill up was 18mpg. John

Why do people bomb the 12V and spend the money on upgraded tranny's instead of just buying a new truck that alreay is made to withstand 200 more hp? What would it take for me to get 350hp other than buying a new truck that comes stock with that power? John

Fuel plate - $200 Injectors - $900 Bigger turbo - $500 - $1,000 Intake/Exhaust mods - $ 500 Tranny upgrades - $3,000 - $5,000

Total out of pocket - $5,000 - $7,500 New truck $35,000

Take the cash indicated above, and spread it around these two places, among a host of others:

"Tom Lawrence"

I can't afford a new truck, that's for sure, but I was speaking in terms of newer vice new. Sell mine for $9k or something, then buy a new truck that has that power already. I haven't priced a newer truck to find out what a used one is going for so I may be out of the ball park. Maybe, I'll just keep enjoying my truck as it is. Thanks again, Tom. John

Is there a huge difference between injectors? I've seen some on ebay that seem pretty reasonable. John

Cheap power for the 12 valve:

Thanks. What's a GSK?

Governor Spring Kit

Thanks Tom. I read the posted url link but not sure what the writer was describing. I'm thinking there is a series of adjustments or add-ons that need to be done together to form a cohesive power upgrade without any harmful effects.

John

Absolutely correct... adding power requires modification to several different components. For example, tweak injection pump and upgrade injectors to get more flow... need a better lift pump to deliver the extra fuel, need a better turbo to build more boost to add to that extra fuel, need a better intake/intercooler to cool down the boosted intake charge, need a bigger/freer-flowing exhaust to take away the extra heat/exhaust gases. Powertrains need to be strengthened to deal with the extra torque. It keeps going.

Buying a "newer" truck that comes stock, already built to handle 200 extra hp is sounding more attractive all the time. With one exception, keeping my truck until the wheels fall off and resigning myself that the truck just doesn't have the grunt everyone says it has.

You also have to factor in the tax, increase in insurance cost and so on of a newer or new truck. Also along with the newer truck come a whole bunch of expensive electronic stuff. You might want to take your truck to a Cummins facility and have them put it on the dyno and see what they come up with. You might be down on power due to a real simple cause.

I learned some time ago that if you really want to go fast you do it in a car. A truck is a truck, is a truck, it may be powerful but it is a truck. If I had it to do over again, I should have kept my 94 12V.

But it always seems to come down to "want" rather than "need".

Put a shift kit in the trans and you'll feel the power you have being delivered more effectively. Put in a lower stall TC and then the grunt works more effectively. This is far cheaper than going nuts on power accessories and finding that you break the drivetrain more often.

Miricle of miricles...ok, pretty simple fix really. I'm rather embarrsed while scratching my head. I'll get to this and the fix in a moment...

Local Cummins seemed much more in tune than the Dodge guys as they didn't know what was wrong, what couuld be wrong, and not sure where to start. Cummins didn't want $95 to throw it on machine as Dodge did. It doesn't need a machine. it's needs a real mech who knows the engine as it has to be a simple fix, just because of the symptons. I'm not a mech, but do repair things and know the difference between something major and something minor. It's just a gut feeling and the symptons.

Cummins said $90, then 50 to hook it to a computer then time to read it and it came out to $240 just to see if there was anything wrong. No thanks.

I heard our area (Virginia Beach) finally has a diesel place that is about power, not big rig repairs. Went there this morning. The man who looked at my truck drives the same thing as well as a newer dually and is in the Navy as a Nuc Mach Mate. We speak the same language.

I told him what I noteced and thought, the overflow valve replaced, etc... We went for a ride. It wasn't too bad and he liked it for the most part. I said the throttle plate is slid all teh way forward. He didn't like that as the power wasn't there for that simple mod. I asked him if his foot was on the firewall or in a more normal position like his truck. That got his attention. Back tot eh garage. Throttle has a lottle of play in it. Yep. that's why I said I'm not getting WOT. Didn't take long from there. I told him Dodge had done a recall to replace the throttle cable but it looked different than the new one I had already replaced on it (new style). The one they put on wasn't the old style or the new style. It's different.

He made a quick spacer to take the slack behind the pedal. Lo an d behold, the truck runs like it did when I forst bought it. I'm putting the old cable back in.

(if you're confused, the original cable frayed and Dodge had a new one out. Dealer said no recall even though NHTSA said there was. I bought the new one, repalced it myself and called Dodge. A friends brother worked for them in their main hq in their quality dept. That helped. The faxed me the paperwork to give to the dealer for the recall and sent me a check to pay for the cable I bought. Dealer put the new cable on and gave me my new cable back. Sweet!

Now the embarassment. I never noticed a loss of power or slack in the throttle from that time. I did notice that over a year to two years time, power was slipping away. I thought my truck was dying.

Nope. Overflow valve spring broken and now throttle cable bad. It's running really sweet now. I've got power! My foot isn't embedded into the firewall trying to get it to move. To be honest, with the slack in the cable, I didn't notice my foot sinking into the floor before power came on. Seemed pretty normal. Now my foot barely moves and i'm honking

1. Pretty easy to pass on the freeway now, as well as take off from a dead stop.

I did feel blessed and that God was allowing me to play a little so I am going to put in 3k gsk, kdp fix, 3 pod gauge set, timing checked and tweaked, and a #8 TST plate installed. He's going to do that in 2 weeks (he's only free weekends, Scott, not the business). I thought about a #6 plate but looking at TST's site, the #8 seems best for tranny life. A #10 isn't rec'd for some reason. I know I've read online that taking a

Anyways, there it is in long form.

Short form? Stretched (or wrong throttle cable installed by dealer.)

John

Did you get the recall part? CANZ900?

Yeah... pulling transmissions every time they break gets old REAL quick :)

I bought cable 4897407AA M02A Cable P for $49.88 on May 30,

I can't find the recall package. I can't believe that was 7 years ago. The cable must be stretching. I still have the one I bought. It's going back on soon. The temp fix is working fine though. The truck is fun driving again. Funny when something slowly goes, you really don't notice it until it's gone.

John

I'll do that at next rebuild. I'm approaching 90k on this rebuild. The guy who worked on my truck today mentioned about the stall set up on them. Not sure why Dodge does it that way. My understanding or take from his conversation was that they will always slip as the Sp is higher than what it turns. Did I say that right? John

John

I don't wanna hear it... you have a lift and a nice garage all to yourself.